As I wrote earlier, group lessons are a great way to have kids interact, to teach theory, history, and more.
Parents stay during the group and I include them in activities at times. But the most memorable group lesson of all was the year I had “Fathers Night”. It was the first lesson of the season. So instead of putting the pressure on the kids to perform, I put the pressure on the dads. When I sent out the paperwork about piano that year I added a note saying that at the first group lesson the children would not have to perform, but the father’s would have to perform. It could be any kind of performance since many did not have a music background.
Luckily, the fathers took it in good stride and came prepared. To all of our surprise, not one father declined the invitation. In fact, they all rose to the occasion and got thunderous applause. One father practiced “Go Tell Aunt Rhody” so that it was memorized. He wanted to impress his family. However, when he got to the piano, he completely blanked out and couldn’t even begin the piece. One of the little ones passed along her music to him and he played through it just fine.
Another father proudly stood up and announced, “I will be playing Honey Bee H.T.” (H.T. stands for hands together as stated in a previous blog.) Honey Bee is one of the most simplistic pieces in the Suzuki book one where the hands play the same thing an octave apart. But he was sweating through it and was very proud when he finished.
Another dad recited ” The Jaberwalkies” from Alice in Wonderland. Another dad who cannot read a note of music but plays by ear, performed a piece he had written. And so went the night. After the performance the dads and kids had a great discussion about how it felt to perform. The dads had a great realization for what their kids go through when they perform. It gave them hands on insight and they admired their children for doing it. In the end, the dads were complimenting their kids for learning piano.
Everyone had so much fun (especially the wives who were almost brought to tears by their laughter). So….
the following year our first group lesson was “Mother’s Night”!
